Director-producer Girish Malik, who today attended Environment and Wildlife Film Festival here with his first directorial venture ‘Jal’, said it was important to have entertainment angle in an issue-based film to impart the underlying message.

‘Jal’, which talks about water scarcity, is set in the adverse environment of Rann of Kutch in the state of Gujarat. ” ‘Jal’ is about water and its scarcity. But we needed to find a theme to tell a story. We found a really good story, which can entertain people and goes really far (gives a message),” Girish said on the sidelines of the festival, which is on till tomorrow.

“The film has been made in such a way that it does not get into the definition of art or popular cinema. It’s artistic and at the same time wide-spread,” he added.

The film, which stars Purab Kohli, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Kirti Kulhari in lead roles, is slated to release on March 28.

For nearly 15 years, Girish wanted to make this film, the idea of which struck his mind while travelling.
“I am an avid traveller. I take inspiration from what I see around. I always wanted to make a small documentary on birds. While looking for migratory birds, we reached Rann of Kutch, Rakesh Mishra (co-script writer) had some idea about water,” he said.

“Somehow this idea came about the survival fight between birds and human beings in terms of water. When this idea consumed me, I never looked back. I wanted to make this more than 15 years,” he added.

Actress Tannishtha said that it was difficult for the crew to shoot in harsh climatic conditions in Bhuj.

“We had a very difficult shoot in Bhuj in the summer. It was between 45-52 degrees. We even had sand storms. It was a tough shoot. But inspite of the harsh weather, the team was so good that we had fun,” she said.

The film had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival last year.